Dr Joseph Roche is no longer in the running for the Mars One mission after the mission’s organisers confirmed he had been dropped from the shortlist for breaching confidentiality.

Roche had made the final shortlist of 100 after battling more than 200,000 other applicants who dreamed of going on a one-way trip to the red planet. The mission plans to establish a human colony on Mars with new humans arriving there every two years.

In recent days, the Irishman caused an online storm when he spoke out about his doubts about the viability of the project in an article on Medium.

Rather than being hampered by the weather Google’s broadband balloons actually work in collaboration with the wind and a single balloon can serve broadband to locations at opposite ends of the world within days.

A spokesperson for US President Barrack Obama has announced the hiring of one of Facebook’s engineering directors, David Recordon, to the newly-created role of director of White House information technology.

Berlin start-up Relayr built a WunderBar of sensor technology to provide developers with easy access to internet of things (IoT) data, earning the company top honours among over 400 international competitors.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US has granted Amazon permission to start R&D on delivery drones that could potentially carry goods bought online to the doorstep of shoppers within an hour.